It is axiomatic that good results will not be achieved by leaders unless they are men or women who are respected, whose personal judgment is trusted and who can inspire and warm the hearts of those they lead – gaining their trust and confidence. The beginning of leadership is a battle for the hearts and minds of men and women based on truth and character.
I have been contemplating the part played by character as President Donald Trump imprints his mark on the United States and the world. While others will shortly be assessing the achievements of his first 100 days, my concern is Trump, the man.
It is not a pretty picture. As one comic put it: “Trump dominates the news cycle like a f**t dominates the interior of a Volkswagen Beetle. You can’t avoid talking about him.” A London café is selling Trump sandwiches: “White bread, full of baloney, with Russian dressing and a small pickle.”
Donald Trump has made satire great again.
One of the most tiresome experiences of parenting is the stage, at three or four years, when your child doesn’t want to do anything without being watched and praised. But at least you know they’ll grow out of this need to be noticed and validated. Unless, that is, you are Trump who, it has become apparent, is 70 going on three years.
This is not an endearing foible from the leader of the free world. It is a deep character flaw. As one wit worryingly reminded us: “Like a toddler at home with a loaded handgun, sooner or later Donald will find the place where the grown-ups hid ‘the Button’.” As Thomas Szasz, a psychiatrist said: “A child becomes an adult when he realises that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.”
Becoming the most powerful man on the planet has not calmed Trump’s insecurities. It has led him to tell falsehoods to the CIA, ban government scientists from talking to the press on climate change and, most egregiously, accuse his predecessor of wiretapping his home in Trump Tower. He may have got away with bullying his private staff, but he cannot bully federal staff or discourage voters from speaking out against him without undermining democracy.
Trump seems to have expected that when he won the presidency he would receive the same adulation he got at his campaign rallies, or on the set of the reality television show he starred in, The Apprentice, or within the companies where he has always been an authoritarian boss.
It is an irony that the man who spent years challenging the legitimacy of the former president, and jeering at him, now finds himself responding to a constant stream of criticism.
Before his inauguration, Trump complained that he was not getting the respect he deserved from the media. The White House press secretary has said that the President’s feelings were hurt. He was, we were told, “demoralised that the public’s perception of his presidency does not necessarily align with his own sense of accomplishment”.
Trump appears to be so needy that his priority is not to be doing what he can to make the US feel happier, but what America should be doing to make him feel happier about himself. He has been obsessed with personal ratings that no one but he would have cared about if he had not made them an issue.
Trump has brought the vigour of a business tycoon to the White House. But he lacks the rigour of a worldly politician
He couldn’t bear the fact that the numbers who turned out to watch his inauguration were smaller than Obama’s, that he did not win the popular vote, or that his popularity is lower for a new president than any of his recent predecessors. Unable to bear these truths, he and his team have consistently lied about them.
The President cannot resist talking up his own ‘greatness’ or how ‘smart’ he is. Some have accused him of suffering from narcissistic personality disorder. He could not get through the first days of his presidency without saying something that was not demonstrably untrue. But the media’s over-use of the word “lie” indicates that journalists gloss all too easily over the fine distinction between ‘lie’ and ‘falsehood’.
For a lie, Trump would have had to know the truth. It is possible that he believes his own tweets. And it may be that he simply has no regard for the truth at all, not even caring whether he is right or wrong. But lying when you are a property developer or a TV host, or even a presidential candidate, is not the same as lying when you are the president.
What he doesn’t appear to see is that his supporters were untroubled by his untruths on the campaign trail – about sex assaults and unpaid tax – because all they cared about was what he promised to do for them. He is in a very different position now.
Showmanship, self-delusion and ego have got him to the presidency. The more Trump emphasises being clever, tweeting “my IQ is one of the highest… I’m a very compassionate person with a very high IQ… They say is Donald Trump an intellectual? Trust me, I’m like a smart persona [sic],” the less convincing it sounds.
Margaret Thatcher once remarked that “Power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
Donald Trump is demonstrating that being regarded as intelligent is the same. If you feel the need to gloat about your intelligence, you probably don’t have a great deal of it.
Trump has brought the vigour of a business tycoon to the White House. But he lacks the rigour of a worldly politician. A former reality star is meeting the realities of Washington. The most contentious of his executive orders – a ban on immigrants from several Muslim countries – has resulted in chaos at airports and a clash with the courts, and his pledge to abolish “Obamacare” has ended in abject humiliation.
Only an intelligent response to America’s real problems will keep him in office. The people will judge him on how he delivers their need for jobs, healthcare, wages, security and crime. Trump has to get out of his delusionary, narcissistic bubble and grow up fast, or his plaintive, damaged ego will deliver disaster both for his country and for himself.
Trump is learning that, while he can lash out at institutions on twitter they have a way of biting back. He started a war of words with the intelligence services, questioning their competence and motives.
They have responded with damaging leaks. He has maligned federal judges, only to have his attempts to order immigration restrictions blocked by the courts.
When Trump compares leaking information to the practices of Nazi Germany, denigrates negative coverage as “fake news” and hints at a dark conspiracy against him (such as the unsubstantiated allegations that Obama ordered Trump Tower to be tapped, or that British intelligence services had done so) he is using fear of conspiracies to strengthen his own position and to reinforce his own paranoia.
His xenophobia, sexism, crudeness, narcissism, childish petulance, paranoia, impulsiveness and contempt for decent values are what make Trump, the man. We must pray that the renowned checks and balances of the US Constitution will hold his deep-seated character flaws at bay.